Many commercial transactions are documented by paper receipts. Receipts may be in the form of itemized billing, such as from a restaurant or a hotel. Other receipts may be related to a single purchase, such as a plane ticket or taxi fare. Still other receipts may include multiple types of expenses, such as a hotel receipt which also reflects restaurant or room service charges, or a department store receipt which includes items such as food, clothing and pharmaceuticals. Receipts may include additional charges, such as taxes, gratuities, service fees, fuel surcharges, and the like. Earliest receipts were hand written at the time of a transaction. More recently, receipts are printed by a point-of-sale device, such as at a cash register or following a credit card swipe.
Receipts are important for many reasons, including documenting a purchase for a possible return or exchange of merchandise. Receipts are frequently necessary for business expenses to facilitate reimbursement or to sustain a tax deduction. Receipts may contain different entries that require different treatment. For example, some items may be legitimate for reimbursement or for tax deduction, while others in the same receipt or related receipts are not. Some items may be reimbursable, but with different rules than for others on the same receipt. Distinctions may be based on areas such as company policy or tax regulations.
It can be difficult and time consuming to maintain paper receipts, particularly when a lot of receipts are generated such as might be encountered during long or frequent business trips. Receipts can be lost or damaged. Archiving paper receipts for months or years, particularly for large enterprises, can require substantial storage space. Also, paper receipts can fade over time. Receipts printed with thermal paper may become useless if stored in a location with too high a temperature.
Some businesses rely on document processing devices to generate electronic images of paper receipts. These devices include printers, copiers and scanners. More recently, devices employing two or more of these functions are found in office environments. These devices are referred to as multifunction peripherals (MFPs) or multifunction devices (MFDs). MFPs are used in connection with example embodiments disclosed in detail below, but it is to be appreciated that any suitable document processing device can be used. Given the expense in obtaining and maintain MFPs, devices are frequently shared among users via a data network.